You Are Good For Gossip

Amazing article this morning on Alex Pettyfer from The Hollywood Reporter. This is where Janice Min’s touch has made a difference.

As for Alex Pettyfer – we’re just over a week from I Am Number Four, his major introduction, after which he’s supposed to be considered among the top young talent in Hollywood with the star quality to back up his good looks…and already a massive ego that usually goes along with that combination.

In other words, Alex Pettyfer is GREAT for Gossip.

At the age of 19 last year, while working on I Am Number Four, his first major feature, still essentially a no-name to most and “some guy who may have flirted with Emma Watson” to some, Alex found out that his $250K paycheque was less than someone else’s on the set, most likely Timothy Olyphant. He stomped his feet and demanded a raise. The studio, DreamWorks, chose the Tiger Mother approach as opposed to the Western Mother approach – no raise. So then, um, he refused to cash his cheques. Which might be like a 2 year old refusing to eat? Or something?

There’s also talk of blowing off marketing meetings and hostile behaviour on upcoming projects, specifically swaggering up to studio executives like he’s Johnny Depp – Pettyfer has decided that his asking price is now $10 million and Clint Culpepper at Screen Gems was apparently apoplectic when the dollar figure came across his desk.

This also puts into perspective the Dianna Agron management incident. A couple of months ago, Pettyfer’s girlfriend scrapped her team and decided to go with his team, agent and all. I called it Boyfriend Control at the time. Click here for a refresher. The boyfriend is a megalomaniac. This will be trouble down the line. Is Alex worth the trouble?

From an industry perspective, they think he might be. That he is so electrifying in I Am Number Four and in all his upcoming projects that the payoff could be huge, that he’s cocky because he knows he’s good, that he can deliver. But, but, wait a minute now…

Is that, like, an acceptable excuse?

THR quotes a producer who has worked with Alex:

"Pick your words: ambitious, hungry, cocky, very ahead of himself. But if he delivers, he'll be worth it."

That’s the problem with Hollywood. You point out the boy’s flaws. You know it’s offside. And then you basically say you’ll CONDONE it if he makes money. And you still think they’re not all assholes in that f-cking town? Click here for the full article at The Hollywood Reporter.